Time Runs Out Ninja (TRON)
by TTgo-Starfire
Summary: Cyrus Borg has just invented a machine that has the power to send the digitised version of an object onto the Grid. His newest upgrade is even better, the matter manipulator can send virtually anything. Based on TRON Original and Legacy. The inspiration for this came from Jay's light cycle and LGOE. Titanium Zane, Jay, Cole, Kai.
1. Chapter 1

_This is a story collab. Obviously AU and borrowed from LGOE with her permission. Based on TRON but ties in with Zane._

* * *

 ** _Prologue_**

Borg's office was empty, the entire tower was defunct of any staff. The office block seemed to have been abandoned in haste.

The ninja, whilst trying to get in had to rely on using the exterior window cleaning lifts to get upto the required floor, before having to break a window to gain entrance.

The whole place gave Kai the creeps. "Is this where Zane's signal came from?"

Cole nodded apprehensively, he checked his phone and saw a pixelated version of Zane. The message was as clear as day. _'Help m-me, please.'_

 _'I am trapped in the digital world, in a virtual prison.'_

"Hold on Zane, we're coming for you," Cole mumbled and held the phone tight, unsure if Zane could hear or even respond to the message he had sent in response.

They walked through corridors. Office paper was scattered on the floor. Dot Matrix printouts and large-scale commercial printers reading nothing but binary code repeated over and over. Some of the paper had been charred, shredded. The whole floor had the smell of over warm electrical devices, at risk of overheating.

Choosing to stay together as a team they approached Borg's office, heaving the reinforced doors open cautiously with his scythe.

They all had their weapons ready, in a defensive stance, just in case.

But there was nothing there, his office lay empty of staff and himself. All that remained was his most recent inventions, one of which was emitting a high pitched whine.

Jay walked around the empty office, staring in wonderment at the gadgets, some half finished.

One looked like a modern version of a telescope but it was facing the wrong way, it wasn't facing the window, it was facing a wall, a scorch mark remained on the steel plated section of wall. "Hey err, guys." He touched the still warm device. "You might wanna take a look at this remarkable thing."

"Yeah, and I suggest you don't touch it!" Cole admonished, gently smacking Jay's hand off the large black telescope that looked more like a heavy duty sniper rifle with an impressive optic scope attached.

"What is it?" Kai quizzed, he approached slowly.

"What? how the Heck do you expect me to know that? Doofus, remember whose office this is?" Cole punched him on the arm playfully. He didn't see Kai wince in response.


	2. Chapter 2

_This is a story collab. Obviously AU and borrowed from LGOE with her permission. Based on TRON but ties in with Zane._

* * *

 **A few hours previous, Borg Tower, New Ninjago City.**

 **Status: testing phase 91/99**

 **MCP: Fully functional, diagnostic OS being upgraded.**

"What is it, Mr Borg?" Zane had inquired.

He moved to the front of it, looking it over in great detail. He scanned it but saw nothing remotely interesting from the device that was stood on four legs. He correctly surmised that this was only part of the machine, the rest was being controlled from another source. Typically, the one that Cyrus Borg was standing over and tinkering with.

"It is a matter manipulator, completely one of a kind. A prototype if you will." He smiled broadly and motioned Zane to join his side.

His fingers graced the keyless screen and Zane stared at the glass panel that seemed to come alive with the simplest of touches.

"This is certainly modern since when have you been into the creation of keyless control panels?"

"Since the Overlord," He smiled and pressed a final button as the odd machine whirred to life. "It was all in there, in his mind."

Zane frowned but kept his expression hidden from Cyrus. He just simply watched the restricted man as he travelled with ease across his office space.

"It was all in there, it was amazing, dark too, but incredibly amazing."

Zane shuddered, he didn't think himself capable but yet there it was. A feeling of unease making its way into his core components. PIXAL was offline for some odd reason, this didn't help in the slightest.

The nindroid watched curiously as Cyrus placed an inanimate object in front of the four-legged machine. It was a simple six-sided shape, one that could easily be calculated effectively once in the system. An equation that would not require too much in the way of internal memory. Besides, Cyrus had mentioned that the fewer servers he used the better. He had only reserved four from his large scale server farm, the rest were still being heavily used for his recreation of a newer and better functioning nindroid army.

"Stand back Zane," He said and smiled widely. "This will be bright." He warned and placed some protective eyewear, motioning Zane to do something similar to protect his liquid crystal eyes from destruction.

"I have tried this on many shapes now, the first was a circle, no sides you see. Easier to compute and reprogram into the system."

Zane was following, he wasn't entirely sure that this would be a good idea, but he was still entranced by it. Almost glued to the spot in fascination as he watched the mastermind work.

"You see, the item I place in its original form is 3D in quality. It simply transfers across without problem and reappears within minutes on my screen, exactly as it was in its original form."

He pressed the execute button and watched from afar. Zane dimmed his eyes, narrowing them to reduce any potential damage as the room was lit up like a Roman candle.

"The reason for the brightness?" Zane asked in confusion as his retinae began to vibrate.

"Ahh, yes. When light strikes an object, it scatters. It makes it easier for the matter manipulator to carry this code from there to here. Remarkable really."

"I see," Zane responded.

"Do you?" Cyrus bristled slightly.

"It is as if things appear differently, the item normally becomes brighter and more defined. But here Zane, here the light is changing the object's appearance. The light is coming off at different angles, with different colours, depending on how bright it is."

Zane cocked his head to the side and watched the large glass screen in front of Cyrus. There was only really one question whizzing around in his CPU, why?

"What are you expecting to happen with this device? Will it herald any advancements?"

Cyrus nodded happily. It was evident to Zane that the inventor and self-made millionaire knew that whatever he laid his hands on would be a definite success, eventually.

"What am I expecting? Hmm, this device could be one of two things maybe more. It may also be useful as an ultrafast camera to take images of chemical reactions or electrons as they move. I am still yet to find out what this is truly capable of."

"So, Zane, it is largely in its testing phase. Therefore meaning we still have many more things to test before we can even attempt to say that this is ready for unveiling. I still have some minor glitches on the master control panel to rectify before this will be ready, maybe a few more dummy runs."

"So in effect, this device is a digitising laser?"

"You are correct Zane, it sounds so much better and less intimidating than a matter manipulator. I have learnt that people do not really appreciate the term manipulate, it creates tension, a risk to them to change their ways."

* * *

 **Meh, I hate Grammarly and autocorrect**


	3. Chapter 3

**_TIME JUMP_**

 _"Users!"_ Came the odd computer generated voice, that the four ninja team recognised as their titanium brother.

"Meaning what? Cole shouted into the large arena. All he got in response, was jeering, laughter and insults. "Rude."

The unknown man grabbed at Cole's arm and held it high, a small trickle of blood fell and landed on the transparent floor. " _User!"_ He whispered into Cole's ear.

"What's your problem?" He hissed and pulled his arm from the strong grasp.

"This is the computer world right?" Jay pushed the man away gently, he stood as close to Cole as he could without raising suspicion.

"Yeah so?"

He leaned his head slightly and spoke clearly but quiet enough so that Cole could still hear amidst the heckling of the audience. "There's a few types of components that effectively run large scale servers and computers, namely; programs, files, memory and drivers being the most common." He nodded in the direction of the stands.

The fully filled arena was overflowing with thousands of almost identical faces, male and female. All wore impossibly black one piece suits with bright neon orange piping that glowed as brightly as the settling sun. "The people who control it from the outside, well, that would be us!"

The master of earth looked to his feet, he was never really interested in tech, physical fitness was more his thing. But he was fast learning that perhaps tech should have been taken more seriously. "Oh!"

Jay's usual upbeat attitude pulled him from the depths of uncertainty. "Don't let it get to you Cole, Gotta have thicker skin right? Besides we handled much worse than this."

The opposing team, consisting of four familiar looking opponents, were wearing the same black with bright orange, they were steadily approaching. None of the ninja team could see their opponents faces, they were completely obscured by an ominous black tinted helmet.

One of the brainless followers of the overlord, approached the black clad crew of confused young men. He held a long black hard case in his arms.

Another man stood in front and opened it with ease, clicking open both clasps at the same time. The lid opened gently and he turned his back, offering the choice to his own team first. They each took a long black stick out and held it aloft, raising it menacingly as if to strike a piñata.

He then approached the men with white neon stripes, namely; Cole, Lloyd, Kai and Jay. "CLU Titanium has offered you the chance to participate in disc wars or a battle on the light cycle grid. It is your choice."

"CLU?" Cole queried, it was the first thing that popped into his sleep addled brain. He took one look at the open case, to him the black rods looked like katana without a blade, maybe they were hidden or maybe they were tanto or electrified like everything in this city was.

"Cole, it means Codified Likeness Utility...C.L.U." Jay quickly answered, both of them didn't look at Zane nor his compatriot.

This was unknown territory for all of them. "What if we say no?" Kai said in jest. He received a look of disgust from the opposition and a few choice slurs were cast in his favour from his opposition.

Zane was corrupted, likely a virus or a new computer program. One that was installed by the Overlord as a final act, after Zane sacrificed himself and his consciousness ended up in the virtual world.

It was a literal middle finger to the Ninja team for meddling in his plans to dominate. But of course, now they were in his world, and in this world, he was the boss, Zane was his next in command and everything here would turn in his favour.

The man with the case answered in an unnatural yet mocking synthetic voice. "You choose or you'll be rectified or deleted dependent upon his choosing."

"Ha yeah, because we all know that you can delete an actual user…"Jay snorted but received a swift kick to his shin from Cole.

"Oww, hey no fair."

"Sorry Jay, but we're in their world now. We _can_ be deleted, forgotten about, stuck here like we would've been a few years ago." Cole admonished, but gently.

"That wasn't exactly what I meant, I was sort of being facetious."

"Anyway forget about it, were you referring to when we fought the overlord as a team?"

Cole nodded, "The very same in Borg tower, we did it together though and we can do it this time too."

"Yeah, it was only because of PIXAL and Nya that we weren't stuck in here forever." Kai sobered up, his face now somewhat solemn.

Time was still ticking, but not in their favour, the man who held the case tapped his feet impatiently. His face was long, square set and devoid of emotion.

"Then what are we waiting for? We've got no choice so let's go out with a bang huh, lets show these guys what we're made of!" He put his hand in the middle, palm down.

Cole was next to place his hand on top. "Let them know what they're up against…"

"That they picked the wrong team to mess with…" Kai placed his palm down on Cole's.

"That we're stronger together and that we can do this." All four palms down they cheered and pushed down, chanted and stood back up, as if energised.

"How typically human of you, so quick to use team working to rouse emotions. Why bother?" His strange synthetic voice sliced through their good feelings and strong resolve.

A few opposition members took a rogue team member away, a frog march of sorts. The ninja team simply stared at the spectacle. The restrained man did not seem happy about the treatment, he didn't even want to participate in the games. But as a fitting end to his now obsolete function and for the entertainment of Zane, this man was being summarily deleted in the name of fun and to sway the audience in his favour.

The floor seemed to morph, panels seemed to open and fold in on themselves like a giant glass origami puzzle, out of nowhere A large circular hole appeared in front of them with a very long drop leading to a mincing fan a couple of hundred feet below.

The ninja didn't need to peer over the edge, a large LCD screen appeared overhead and it gave a pretty good image of what was at the bottom of the hole. It was a fan, the largest one they had ever seen.

Jay thought it could have just been a computer fan, nothing too special when you're a human and removing fluff from it with ease, but when you've been transported by some weird laser-matter manipulator and you're now smaller than a pinhead, the fan wasn't so inconsequential anymore. It was a hazard, lethal and would kill everything and anything regardless. Jay gulped and found he could tear his eyes off the screen as the man was thrown into the hole, it was only a few seconds until he hit the fan and exploded into tiny pixelated fragments of his original programming.

The man was no more, his coding, everything about him, now recycled into the system. Jay's face had paled considerably, even Zane stared at him from his vantage point. He simply scowled in response and turned to face Cole again.

Jay's face had paled considerably, even as Zane stared at him from his vantage point watching for his reaction. "Dammit Zane. Really?"

He simply scowled in response and turned to face Cole again. "You choose for the team." He stood in front of Cole but his black and green binary eyes were staring into Lloyd's.

Lloyd grit his teeth, his jaw clenched angrily. "We'll take a battle on the light cycle grid."

He spoke for the team, his team. The group of ninja, who stood strongly behind him, backing him up in number and strength. Even in the face of adversity and uncertainty.

"Jay, you sure about this?" Cole whispered to his best friend.

"We've got no real choice have we? You heard what he said and we all saw what just happened to that other guy, he was destroyed, like completely obliterated into tiny squares of tech and energy."

"He was a computer file, a program. He wasn't real though."

"You wanna take that chance? I thought he meant that a user could be deleted, that it would be a case of some binary code, like removing our name from databases, erasing our very existence. But considering the fact that we can bleed in here means something very much worse." Jay looked more concerned at Cole's injured arm, the blood contrasted against his tight black suit from his most recent disc wars fight.

"And I don't wanna end up in there." He said with a visible shudder. He ran a hand through his hair nervously and looked back up at the screen as it hovered in the large expansive arena.

"Hey Cole, you can ride a bike?"

"I never tried, preferred four by fours or my trusty earth digger."

"Well, there's nothing to it, just gotta hang on to the handlebars and only pop a wheelie when the time calls for it." Kai added with an imperceptible grin.

Lloyd wasn't smiling, he wasn't a huge computer gaming fan, he dabbled in a bit of if when he was younger, the odd racing games or fisticuffs but nothing this retro.

"It's who he is now guys. And Jay's right, we've got no choice in this."

"Our only chance to get out of here alive is to participate and win these games."

"Just gotta hope that Nya can help us out of this mess and upload a new program. We've got no choice, we've got to battle." Jay replied and took his long black stick from the opened case.

"Hey, uh what am I supposed to do with this?" He wafted it around, looking at it in confusion.

"I'll give you a hint….not that." The man who held the case mocked. The crowd erupted into raucous laughter, sardonic at Jay's expense.

The blue ninja blushed and faltered. But he wasn't downed that easily. He watched the opposing team as they pulled the stick in half, the action not too dissimilar of unsheathing a sword.

He tried it himself. It worked, the black stick he was holding onto was the computer program that recreated a motorbike, not just any motorbike. This was a light cycle. Just like the one he had created with help from Ed, his adoptive father.

"Ahahahah, neat…this was just like the one at the Junkyard. Soo cool." He jumped onto it but waited for his team mates to do the same. As soon as he sat on the cycle a pure black helmet covered his entire face and head, the only part of his natural colour was a small blue section on his own disc. The brighter than usual ID disc pulsed with his own element, it remained attached firmly to his back.

"You joining in too?" He hollered to Cole.

Lloyd had quickly followed suit and Kai was sitting atop his light cycle, revving the accelerator whilst his foot remained on the back brake. "Come on Cole, if we work as a team we can all do this…"

Jay turned to Cole, the only part of Jay's face he could see was the lower part of his jaw, a small flash of auburn hair visible. "You ever played the retro game 'snake' or Tron? I guess it might be a bit like that, except you got, uh, eight snakes in total and you can't cross the tails or beams without losing, not even your team mates!"


End file.
